Roosevelt's Gang of Five

Jordan Chandler Hirsch reviews Rendezvous with Destiny, by Dr Michael Fullilove, in The Wall Street Journal. Harry Hopkins, President Franklin Roosevelt's roving diplomat throughout World War II, met with Joseph Stalin in July 1941, five weeks after the Nazi invasion of the U.S.S.R. Washington had already decided to aid Moscow in the fight. But the nature of that aid depended on Stalin's resolve. Would American aid give the Soviets only a temporary reprieve from subjugation or could it be decisive? Hopkins found his answer not in Stalin's "cold, implacable" anger at Hitler but in a logistical detail: the request for aluminum.

Jordan Chandler Hirsch

Jordan Chandler Hirsch

Jordan Chandler Hirsch reviews Rendezvous with Destiny, by Dr Michael Fullilove, in The Wall Street Journal. Harry Hopkins, President Franklin Roosevelt's roving diplomat throughout World War II, met with Joseph Stalin in July 1941, five weeks after the Nazi invasion of the U.S.S.R. Washington had already decided to aid Moscow in the fight. But the nature of that aid depended on Stalin's resolve. Would American aid give the Soviets only a temporary reprieve from subjugation or could it be decisive? Hopkins found his answer not in Stalin's "cold, implacable" anger at Hitler but in a logistical detail: the request for aluminum.